When You Wonder If You're Qualified

There's a whole, wide world out there.

Does it sometimes seem too wide?  A bit too big for little old you and me?

Maybe it's because we feel too small for the job.  Maybe we think somebody else could do it better.  Moses certainly thought the same thing.  In Exodus 4, it is written - "But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?  Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.”  

We tell ourselves that there are better leaders out there, better friends, better writers.  But here's the thing - if God wanted somebody else to do your job, He wouldn't have given it to you.  1 Corinthians 7:17 says "Only let each person live the life that the Lord has assigned to him, and to which God has called him...."  God has a reason for assigning your work to you.

The book of Malachi chronicles the Lord's words to His people through His prophet, Malachi (which translates as "my messenger").  In chapter 3 He rebukes His people for robbing Him and offering less-than-worthy sacrifices.  In verse 10 He states "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need."  

It is clear that the people of Israel were not happy with the place they were in.  They didn't think it was worth it to sacrifice their best for a God that didn't bless them (which was in fact brought around by their own bitterness).  They thought it was His doing, His fault that they were in their present state, where they couldn't thrive and felt less than well placed - and they weren't pleased.  But here were God's words "bring the full tithe into the storehouse" - give Me your everything.  "Put Me to the test, see if I will not provide."  

Maybe our uncertainties and our dissatisfaction are due to something different than it would seem.  We're constantly asking God to give us more of Himself, but maybe what we need is to give more of ourselves to Him.  If we wholly give ourselves and our efforts to God, will He not assist us in our work?  1 Corinthians 15:36 says "...What you sow does not come to life unless it dies," and C. S. Lewis speaks akin in Mere Christianity.  "Keep back nothing.....Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”

I would leave you with this quote from Oswald Chambers - "God not only expects me to do His will, but He is in me to do it."  After all, "in the Lord your labor is not in vain." (1  Cor. 15:58)